Advertisements: How Do They Persuade Us Essay

Advertise man military forcets are part and fate of our lives. Perhaps, they are one of the nearly decisive and, at the same time, incognoscible factors moulding and channelling our purchasing habits, so to speak. On the face of it, advertisements promote products and service they acquire demand by dint of inducing and increasing consumption. Yet, the ways in which they convey their messages confound a profound effect on each(prenominal) aspects of our lives our happiness, our culture, family and interpersonal relations, business, stereotypes, wealth and status, individuality, and so forth.According to Leiss et al. (1990 1), advertising is a favour form of discourse, in that it can attract our attention, insinuating itself into our thought processes and novelspaper clipping out a niche in our lives. As we sh all see, advertisements succeed in selling us a lot to a greater extent than only(prenominal) products in fact, they contrive to reconstruct our relations to things a nd other micklein short, they intercept with our sense of identity, they equate us with things, and manipulate us.Williamsons observation compactly encapsulates their power Advertisements are selling us roundthing else be emplacements consumer goods in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves (Williamson, 1978 13). In the present study we are pertain with how advertisements, or rather ad men, to quote Packard (1957), persuade us to deal their products, and forge our hidden needsboth processes taking place beneath our aim of awareness.See more First Poem for You EssayIn inquiring for more effective ways of persuading people to bargain for goods, a swell m either(prenominal) trade inrs or probers (Packard, 1957) turned to psychologists in order to gain in pickles into the deepest recesses of the head teacher and the factors that motivate people, and then to capitalise on their expectations and fear s. Equipped with this fellowship, ad men nowadays exert a remarkable influence on peoples habits and conceptualisation of the world and themselves in relation to determinevalues which are, in great measure, determined by the grocery store.Packard (1957 14), perhaps one of the most(prenominal) vehement critics of the hidden persuaders who have ensnared us by appealing to our unconscious or subconscious needs, eloquently captures the state of the art The symbol manipulators and their interrogation advisers have developed their depth view of us by posing at the feet of psychiatrists and social scientists (particularly psychologists and sociologists) who have been hiring themselves out as practical consultants or setting up their own research firms.These motivation analysts have decidedly become our shamans who, having helped to inspire the fear of the devil in us, they offer redemption (Bolinger, 1980 2) by promoter of the products they sell. They are not only interested in movi ng their merchandise off the shelves they are unquestionablely seeking out powerful communicative cues, a discourse through and nearly objects (Leiss et al. , 1990), which will weld unitedly people, products, and pagan models.In view of this, we no longer buy oranges, we buy vitality. We do not buy just an auto, we buy prestige (Packard, 1957 15). The bargain of self-images (ibid. ) is now the norm. Advertisements barely focus on products alone it is the likely buyers that they blade overtures towhich is mirrored in the language used and in such features as the colours in the ad, its layout, and so on (we will consider some of these aspects in due course).As Ewen (1976, cited in Leiss et al. 1990 23) notes, advertisers have effected a self-conscious change in the psychic economy by inundating the marketplace with suggestions that consumers should buy goods in order to enter realms of experience previously unknown to them. Gradually then, advertising has become a highly orga nized and nonrecreational system of magical inducements and satisfactions (Williams, 1980 1962, cited in Leiss et al. , 1990 25) which can sell us activated security, reassurance of wealth, ego-gratification, creative outlets, love objects, a sense of power and roots, and immortality (see Packard, 1957 66-74 for further details). legion(predicate) people would, at this juncture, hasten to defend advertising on the one thousand that the consumer is a rational decision maker who avails herself of technology advertising cannot create new needs save can only help append or speed up consumption (Schudson, 1984, cited in Leiss et al. , 1990 36) and without the help of advertising, consumers would have limited information about the products circulating around them.What they lose sight of, though, is the fact that we never relate to goods only for their plain utility in that respect is always a ymbolic aspect to our interactions with them (Leiss et al. , 1990 45). Now that we have bri efly circumstances the state of the art, we move on to the actual study of advertisements and the ways in which they persuade us. There are many approaches to this end, but we will draw upon two semiology, or the study of signs, and mental ability analysis. Semiology, on the one hand, is concerned with the emergence and movement of subject matter within the schoolbook and amidst the schoolbook and the world surrounding it. Content analysis, on the other, focuses on the surface meaning of an ad, detecting similarities and differences.Indisputably, the growing predominance of opthalmics in ads has resulted in a human body of ambiguity of meaning, which renders the interpretation of the message more complex and challenging. Earlier advertisements explicitly stated the message by describing the product and adducing arguments in its favour. In the 1920s, however, visuals were more frequently used, and these two, textbook and visual, became complementary. Still, in the 1960s, th e text shifted away from describing the visual toward a more elaborate and mystic form, whereby it functioned as a severalise to the visual (Leiss et al. 1990 199).Against this background of radical changes in the form and content of advertisements, the abovementioned approaches, semiology and content analysis, offer us an insight into the structures of ads and help throw light on the subtle elements, expectations and assumptions, with which they are imbued. Roland Barthes (1973, cited in Leiss et al. , 1990 200-201), hobby Ferdinand De Saussures tradition, divides a sign into two components the anatomy and the mother wit.The signifier is the material object the signified is its abstract meaning. let us illustrate this with Barthes own representative Roses signify passion or love. If we analyse their meaning, we have three elements the signifierthe roses the signifiedpassion or love and the signthe passionified roses as a whole. Of course, there is nothing inherently passionate or amorous about roses they are viewed as such within the context of western culture. In another culture, roses could signify something diametrical, even the opposite of passion or love.Thus, any interpretation of advertisements from a semiotic perspective is bound up with cultural norms and values which may be at odds with those operating in different cultures or different systems of meaning. After all, the power of advertisements lies in, and appropriates, these very norms and values, with a view to reconstituting reality, plot tinging it with an arcane suggestiveness and elusiveness. Drawing upon several advertisements, we will endeavour to probe into the probers minds, weaving the two approaches together.More specifically, we will focus on the rhetorical devices employ (e. . , metaphors, metonymy, jingles, etc. ), as well as the ways in which the text and the visual element prevail upon us to react, i. e. , to buy the product (e. g. , their proclivity for creating a problem , only to consign it to the omnipotence of the product, their spatial arrangement, etc. ). Unfortunately, an in-depth analysis is outside the remit of this study. Let us consider the following ad A black Ford Zetec covers two pages in the magazine, while the text reads When the lorry in front loses its load, most drivers would find themselves losing control. non if youre driving the new 2. 0 litre Ford rivet Zetec ESP. One of the first cars in its class available with an Electronic stableness Program. ESP everlastingly assesses the angle you are steering against information authentic from sensors on the behaviour and direction of the car. By reducing engine power and braking individual wheels it helps you to maintain control and stability, allowing you to stay on track. Its nearly like it knows what to do before you do. So sit back, enjoy the get to and expect more. And the motto just above the car is just steer. This common, albeit catchy, ad addresses the prospective buyer di rectly through the use of the pronoun you. What is more, the strategy it employs is that of creating a problemor rather setting a scene old(prenominal) to many a driver (When the lorry in front loses its load, most drivers would find themselves losing control. )Only in the first sentence is there any mention of most driversapparently in order to juxtapose them to you, the prospective buyer. You are not like most drivers because you are driving the new 2. 0 litre Ford Focus Zetec ESP. Another device employed in the ad is the use of personification, as in ESP constantly assessesit helps youIts almost like it knows The new Ford Focus is more of a jinee in a bottle waiting for you to rub it than merely a car. All you have to do is sit back, enjoy the muster and expect more, revelling in the security its omnipotence affords.Finally, the pun in just steer, referring to the actual steering of the vehicle and, only obliquely, to the idiom to steer clear of, consciously or unconsciously, d ares us to pop into the car and drive, reminding us of our inability to propel the temptation vs. he omnipotence of the vehicle. As Williamson observes, puns perform the correlating function seen in all ads, but in a way that begs to be deciphered densification draws together both the denoted and connoted meanings of the ad, therefore making a deterministic connection between them (Williamson, 1978 87). Yet, not all ads are so straightforward and direct. Let us examine the following ad (found in Williamson, 1978 25). The ad shows Catherine Deneuves face and a Chanel No 5 bottle. There is no text linking these two they are simply juxtaposed. But are they really linked, in the first place?One could say that they are supposed to be linked, in terms of an assumption that they are inextricably related. This link, though, is arbitrary, drawing upon our knowledge of a glamorous world of films and magazines, which Deneuve has come to be associated with. Thus, in juxtaposing her face, which signifies watcher and glamour, with Chanel No 5, there is a latent transference of meaning from Deneuves face to the product, and back again. Not only is her face rendered an object that is summoned to postulate in favour of the product, but it also depends on that product for the sweetie and glamour ascribed to it.Here, the use of language is irrelevant, as the ad appropriates the relationship obtaining between signifier (Catherine Deneuve) and signified (glamour and beauty). In other ads, the visual, not only complements, but virtually transcends, the text, to convey a meaning which is not always belatedly to decipher. Consider the Gordons Gin ad, where there are two different photographs of a famous actor of the 1950s, the bet on one being evidently altered to the point where the actor is barely recognisable. On the left side of the first photo, there is a text in italics, reading Gordons is made with the pick of the Tuscan Juniper.On the right side of the second photo, th e text written in a regular typeface reads otherwise gins are made with whats left. Finally, at the bottom of the page, there is a Gordons Special Dry London Gin bottle in the middle of the sentence If youre not crapulence (bottle of Gin) what are you swallow? Apparently, the significance of the ad resides in assumptions and values outside its grammar (Williamson, 1978).First of all, the collocation of the two photographs appropriates the general belief that a good photograph fashion good quality, which then invites the reader to make the connection between he quality of the first photograph with that of the product through the association of the text in italics with the first picture, and the regular text with the second. Furthermore, the thin typeface (i. e. , italics) stands in stark contrast to the regular text, as it is associated with glamour and prestige and arouses tasteful feelings.So, the last sentence If youre not drinking (bottle of Gin) what are you drinking? co uld easily be rephrased as If youre not one of those who select our gin, then who are you? Once again, the product is put on a pedestal, while tinkering with our desire for approval, that is, suggesting to us that we will find our identity only if we indulge in it. In addition, the use of the calligram, i. e. , the picture of the bottle, instead of the wrangling naming it, establishes the product as something that has a substance all its own, which is beyond words. As Williamson (1978 91) has noted, the calligram playfully seeks to erase the oldest oppositions of our alphabetical civilisation to show and to differentiate to figure and to speak to reproduce and articulate to look and to readIt is a ingeminate trap, an inevitable snare.